Telescope Modeling
An Introduction to LightWave Modeler

by Chris Wall

In this tutorial I will begin the process of modeling and texturing a detailed telescope. We will cover the basic tools and techniques that are necessary in all 3D modeling. The purpose is to get you started thinking in the right direction. This object will go into our final scene that we will build in later tutorials.

On another note, this tutorial will not provide you with exact numeric values for any of the steps. I simply intend for you to follow the steps at your own pace learning the processes and tools from each one as we go along. Don't focus on making your Telescope look exactly like mine, listen to the ideas that we are going over and apply them through your own experimentation with the tools. Use the screenshots as an example of where you should be by the end of that step.

Step 1 - Basic Primitives

First, it helps to have a sketch of what you are trying to build. I recommended that everyone have a drawing before they get started. That being said, i'm going to skip that part and just start modeling. We all know what a telescope looks like, and were just going to let our imaginations go wild with it.

When your modeling something in 3d its a lot like drawing. Try to break everything down into basic primitives, i.e., boxes and cylinders. From there we can add all the detail we need. So go ahead and create a cylinder using the Disc tool.

Wow, a cylinder!

Step 2 - Introduction to Bevel (b)

The next thing we will do is to start beveling out the lens. We know that the telescope must have a lens, but its up to us to make it as interesting as possible. Open up the numeric window (keyboard "n") Then try using the bevel tool (b). In the numeric window you will see different settings for any tool you have selected.

Specifically for Bevel there is "Inset" and "Shift". These indicate how the beveled polygons will scale and out move in or out. This is a very important tool and you should become very familiar with it.

• Inset: This field indicates how the extended polys will either scale in or out, uniformly.
• Shift: Is the direction the extended polys will move. i.e. away from or inward.

*at this point I want you to ignore the +/- values that also apear in the Bevel Numeric Window.

Practice this bevel until you get the hang of it. Once you feel like you understand it move on.

To create the lip of the Telescope Lens you will need to bevel several times. I beveled about 6 or 7 times to create a lip and lens. It is important to add a beveled edge to your objects because in reality, nothing is exactly flat. There are imperfections and edges to almost everything. Besides that, your render will look much more interesting.

Once we get to the lens polys, we will hit "q" or name surface. Call it "Lens Glass". You should get into the habit of naming your surfaces as you model, this will save you a lot of time backtracking.

*I am shading in wireframe shade to better display the development of the wireframe. Each new segment indicates another bevel operation.

Step 3 - Smooth Shift (Shift + f)

Now I want to introduce you to another essential tool. Smooth Shift. Smooth Shift is similar to bevel in many respects like shift and inset, but different in that Smooth Shift will inset a GROUP of polys rather than individual polys. Lets use this tool to create a cap for our telescope.

First select all the polys that are in the middle of your cylinder not the ones on either end.

Second, hit shift+f, this will select the smooth shift tool. All you need to do to create the extra polys is click once. From there we can use the stretch (h) and move (t) tool to move them into place.

Again, name your surfaces. We want this cap to be a different texture than the rest of the telescope so lets call it "Telescope Dark Metal"

With these polys still selected, use bevel (b) to raise them up with a slight inward scale. This adds some interest. Don't forget to bevel these edges too!

*If you would like it to be a smooth cap and not as separate blocks, use Smooth Shift to create the polys and stretch to pull them out. If you use smooth shift, you will have to use your orthographic front view to stretch it out from the center of the cylinder.

Step 4 - Beveling the Back

Using bevel I added the other side of our telescope. Making sure to add a lip to every edge.

This is what we should have by now. Its got enough detail to make it look somewhat interesting and it is still only one mesh. Which means all the polys are connected, even though we have assigned different texture names to groups of polys.

Step 5 - Selecting Objects/ Grouping

For the sake of organization and efficiency I will show you how to create different object groups. You can also separate different meshes into different layers if you choose to do it that way. I prefer to create parts.

Select a single polygon anywhere on the object. Now hit "]" (select connected). Now, since all of our polygons are connected, the entire mesh is selected.

Go to the Display tab, under Display there is a button pull down labeled "Grouping" in grouping "Change Part Name" to Telescope Body.

By Grouping this object into a Part, it makes it easy to select later on. (You can add objects to the part at any time.)

To select a part, open up the statistics window (w). Under polygon statistics (must be in polygon mode) There are many ways to select specific polys. One of these is "Part" where it will list all the parts you have named. To select or deselect the part just click the + or - next to the one you want.

Step 6 - Layers

Lets create another part on a different layer, using layer one as a reference.

Go to layer 2 by selecting the top half of the 2nd rectangle, then alt+click the bottom half of layer one.

This will display our Telescope Body in black outlines and will allow us to build the telescope base around it in a clean layer.

If you want to see both layers together, just alt+click the top half of the second layer.

Step 7 - Building the Telescope Clamp

Now, using layer one as a reference layer we will build the clamp of our telescope. Start by creating another cylinder (Disc tool) that will serve as the pivot point for the Telescope Body.

We are going to need to extend the outside cap a little bit so we can use the back/ bottompolys for another extrude. Use either the knife tool (shift+k) or a bevel with no inset to pull out the outer cap.

Now that we have some extra polys we need to select the bottom half of the back set and click once with smooth shift (shift+f). This will create an an extension of them that we need to pull down and flatten out. The easiest way to do this is select a spot below them and use stretch (h) to pull them all down. Since they cant go past the spot you are pulling them to, they will flatten out. With all of them selected, merge polygons (shift+z).

It should look something like this by now. Since we merged the bottom cap together, Bevel out the all the flat caps and do what you can to make it look interesting. Create some detail around the areas where it will connect to the Telescope Body to make it more realistic. Don't forget to add your textures, vary their placement to add interest.

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Side Note - Texture Basics

You may have noticed that when you add smoothing to your object it doesn't give you a crisp edge.

What you need to do is, select the outer rim of polys, cut them (x) and then, paste (v) them right back to where they were. They are no longer connected, but it will give you the clear clean edge that looks so sharp while still making the rest of your object smooth.

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after some heavy beveling my clamp is looking like this.

Now its time to complete the Clamp. Create a box underneath this object that has 2 segments longways. Keep the inner polygon aligned with the grids origin. Take the outer polygon and extrude it up so that it attaches onto this object. Use bevels as you see fit to give it development. This isn't an exact science, your goal is to make this object with enough detail to entertain your viewers eye and to make it seem believable.

Our goal now is to mirror these two pieces to the other side, thus completing our clamp. To do this seamlessly, we must delete the inner polygons, outlined by the selected points in my second screenshot.

Then, we need to use Set Value (ctrl+v) to snap them to 0 on our grid.
* For me, it was 0 on the Z axis, it may be 0 on X depending on how your object is aligned.

Once this is ready, we need to deselect everything in our second layer by clicking on the grey area next to our tools or press deselect (/). The reason for this is because we need everything selected, and in LightWave, if nothing is selected-everything is selected.

Now pick up the mirror tool (shift+v) and open the numeric window (n). In the numeric window, deselect merge points and In your front orthographic view right click in the 0 axis pull your mouse down like this...

Once you mirror your object it should look like this. Change its part name to Telescope Clamp.

Cut it and paste it into layer one. Try selecting each part in your polygon statistics window (w).

Step 8- Boolean Subtract

At this point, you should be getting very familiar with both Bevel and Smooth Shift. I hope you see that you can build anything from primitives and these two tools.

As for our Telescope, we need a way for it to tilt up and down as well as pivot around its center. So what we will build for it is a 45 degree arc that is attached to the base and a few cylinders that will serve as the object that will rotate its heading. Once we have this, the basic shape of our telescope will be finished and we can begin adding even more detail! haha, the fun never ends! Lets keep going...

Again, we will be working in layer 2 using layer 1 as our reference layer.

Create a small cylinder (Disc tool) underneath the clamp object. Then on layer 3 create 2 boxes as you see here.

Once you are at this point, return to layer 2 and have layer 3 as your reference layer. Use Boolean-Subtract (shift+b) to cut the shape of the boxes out of the cylinder. Then, make sure you use Merge Points-automatic (m) to connect all your points.

Select a single polygon from this shape and activate Select Connected (]). Copy it (c) then Paste it (v). Use Move (t) and lower it just below the first one.

In the top view with your mouse directly in the center of object rotate it 90 degrees by pressing (r).

We need one final disc that we need to cut into two pieces. Create another disc by lining it up in the top and side views and place it underneath your second disc.

* You can also open up your numeric window (n) and in the dropdown for Actions, hit Activate. This will activate the last parameters you used for your tool. In this case, a cylinder with exact dimensions.

Go back to layer 3 and Delete one of the boxes on layer 3. Take one of the inside faces of the boolean box and pull it all the way across the disc. So that it goes completely through the disc.

Return to layer 2 and select all the polygons for the bottom disc. Repeat the Boolean-Subtract (shift+b) to cut away the middle of this bottom piece. By selecting just these polygons you will not preform the Boolean operation on the other 2 discs. You should end up with two halves like you see above.

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TIP: Boolean's are a very useful operation. However, sometimes it will act a little funky. Here are afew things to look out for.

1. Make sure your objects do not have touching edges. This will prevent your Boolean from working.

2. Make sure all your points are merged after you complete the Boolean! Its easy to forget and can cause you to mess up later on.

3. If your object is very high number of polygons, just select the polygons you want to be affected by the Boolean.

4. Look out for unnecessary faces created by the Boolean. Their normals may be facing inward so you don't see them right away.
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Step 9 - Keeping it Clean

Take the bottom polygon cap of the 3rd cylinder down and pull it down. Select the polygons along the left edge.

Use Smooth Shift (Shift+f) to create and extension, and use stretch to flatten them out at a distance further out than the edge of your clamp. Merge the polygons (Shift+Z) on the front, top, and bottom so that there is just one polygon for each.

With all of those polygons still selected, switch to Point Mode. Select all the unnecessary points and go to Construct > Rem Points. With those points still selected, hit Delete.

Now we have clean geometry.

Select the end polygon and use Smooth Shift (Shift+f) again to extend it. Bring it out just a little further. In a side view use the Drag Tool (Shift+t) to bring the furthest set of points down.

To make sure there aren't any unnecessary polygons left over lets open up our Polygon Statistics Window (w) and next to > 2 Point Polygons hit +. This will select any 2 pointed polygons, then hit delete to get rid of them.

Step 10 - The Pitch

Our telescope is coming along quite well so far. However, we are unable to look up at the stars, so here's the pitch.

Go to the third layer and set your second layer as the reference layer. Using the Disc Tool create a cylinder in the gap of the bottom Disc we have been working on. Select the top group of points above the center point of the new Disc and Delete them.

Now, close the hole by connecting the points in a linear order, one right after the other. Once you have them selected Make Poly (p). If you don't pick them in order lightwave will create a twisted polygon.

Now selected the polygon you just created and Smooth Shift (Shift+f) it into position flush with the bottom of the middle disc.

Copy This shape and paste it into the space alongside our original. You may need to shorten its depth to make it fit within the gap. Once you have done this, copy it again and place it on the other side of our original. Now we should have 3 Half Discs with the center one being the thickest. Select both of the side discs and mirror them like you see below.

Then, create a Disc that runs through all three of the pieces. This will serve as our Pivot Point later on when we begin setting the Telescope up for animation.

Were almost done with our basic shape. Now all we need to do is use the Create Disc and Bevel Tools to create a base for the Pitch. Use what you have learned to create one. Center it and place it directly underneath this object.

That's it, we've completed our basic shape for the Telescope. Now its time to start adding the tiny Details and get it setup for our scene!

Proceed To Details